Thomas Jefferson Essays -- essays research papers

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson was the third president of the United States. His terms lasted from the year 1801 to the year 1809. Jefferson was an American revolutionary leader as well as an influential political philosopher. Jefferson was among a group of the most brilliant Americans that resulted from the Enlightenment in Europe. Possibly one of the best writers during his time, Jefferson was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson ¡Ã‚ ¦s status as a Virginia aristocrat gave him the two most important things to become an educated man, which was a difficult thing to become during that time. Those two things, time and the resources, allowed him to educate himself in history, literature, law, architecture, science, and philosophy. He also had a great deal of influence on his ideals that came directly from the European culture and thought because he had been a diplomat and friend of French and British intellectuals. Jefferson was born on the thirteenth day of April of the year 1743 at Shadwell in Goochland (now in Albemarle) Co., Virginia, which was at the time considered a western outpost and was to remain as Jefferson ¡Ã‚ ¦s lifelong home. He was the son of Peter Jefferson and Jane Randolph Jefferson. His father, Peter, was a surveyor, a cartographer, and a plantation owner and he was also largely self-educated. His mother, Jane was from the prominent Rudolph family of colonial Virginia. Jefferson ¡Ã‚ ¦s intense interest in botany, geology, cartography, North American exploration, and love of Greek and Latin are due largely from his father and his surrounding environment out in the west where he also absorbed the democratic views of his Western countrymen. For several years, Jefferson studied at the local grammar and classical schools. After that, he entered the College of William and Mary in the year 1760. During his time at the college, he had become a close friend to three prominent residents of Williamsburg: William Small, George Wythe, and Francis Fauquier who was the lieutenant governor of the colony. Small was of the college faculty who Jefferson had studied under. Small had an in depth knowledge of the Scottish Englightenment and its approach to law, history, philosophy, and science. He had also introduced him to the natural sciences and to rational methods of inquiry. Wythe was of the Virginia bar. ... ...ge. Interest payments from the final settlement finally made the total price $27,267,622. Despite the scruples that Jefferson had about the purchase being constitutional or not, his other fears that Napoleon would change his mind because of Livingston ¡Ã‚ ¦s reports and from the overwhelming public approval of the Louisiana Purchase, except for most of New England, eventually overcame him and he approved. After the United States Senate ratified the treaty in October of that same year, the flag of the United States was raised over New Orleans on the twentieth of December. Even though the United States had purchased a great deal of land, it was still unclear. The wording of the treaty was vague and the boundaries were not clearly described. Also, the fact that the United States was to also own West Florida, which was suppose to be considered part of Louisiana was not assured. Despite that the final boundaries of the territory were not settled for many years, the boundaries roughly extended form the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from the Gulf of Mexico to British North America. The total purchase had doubled the national domain, increasing it 2,144,500 square kilometers.